news-record.com

As the summer sun cooks the red Carolina clay and the air grows thick and unbearable, here are some cold facts to consider: North Carolina ranks No. 1 in the nation in heat-related crop worker deaths - deadlier even than Florida and California - according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released June 19.

The report mentions, as a case study, the death of a 56-year-old worker who fell ill in 2005 while harvesting tobacco in North Carolina. His core body temperature had reached 108 degrees before he died.

Crop workers, as a group, are particularly vulnerable to heat stroke. Nationally, the vast majority of heat-related deaths involves construction workers, the CDC reports. Even so, crop workers, per capita, are 20 times more likely to die from heat stress than others. Many are migrant workers who are unaccustomed to the heat and humidity and who typically spend more time in the fields during the hottest months of the year.

The most susceptible workers tend to be older. Language barriers also may play a role. From 2003 to 2006, the CDC found, 71 percent of the crop workers who died nationwide were Latino. The worker who died here in 2005 spoke only Spanish.

Finally, the demands of harvesting tobacco hardly help. Even in oppressive heat, workers routinely wear long-sleeved clothing as protection from pesticides and tobacco-borne sicknesses.

The issue ought to be addressed as Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry, a Republican, and her Democratic challenger, Mary Fant Donnan, make their cases to voters in an election year. For now, the state is pushing efforts to raise awareness with a newsletter and a bilingual DVD.

That's a start. The North Carolina worker who died in 2005 had received training in handling pesticides, but none in coping with the heat.

The state Labor Department followed up last week with a well-timed public service announcement. July is the deadliest month for heat illnesses.

Federal labor regulations, meanwhile, make no provisions for heat safety and only two states - California and Washington - have adopted heat-related workplace safety rules. Berry's office favors awareness over new rules in North Carolina. "Commissioner Berry definitely is not interested in new regulations," a spokeswoman said last week. She will need to rethink that position if the problem persists.

Still, there's reason to hope the CDC report has special resonance here, not only because of what it has to say, but because of who says it. One of its co-authors is Regina Luginbuhl, head of the Agricultural Safety and Health Bureau. In North Carolina.